During the Long March in June 1935, the Red army's First Front Army joined forces with the Fourth Front Army in Maogong (now Xiaojin), Sichuan Province. At the time the CPC Central Committee had decided on the strategy of marching northward to establish the Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu base area. Zhang Guotao, who was then working in the Fourth Front Army, denied the possibility of establishing a base area in the north and stood for heading implementation of the policy of marching northward. The two conflicting policies of marching south and marching north had a vital bearing on the entire revolution and on the destiny of the Red Army, so its commanders and fighters became gravely concerned over them.